


Night Into Day

by Abraxas (Qlippoth)



Series: A500 [14]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Community: Avatar_500
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22397935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qlippoth/pseuds/Abraxas
Summary: Sokka journeys into the center of the Antarctic where all of the chiefs go to meet their destiny.
Series: A500 [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/20622
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Night Into Day

Originally Published January 15, 2011

* * *

A week's trek revealed a horizon jagged with the spine of a range. He journeyed further and deeper until he ambled through abysmal and cyclopean passages. Soon ice faded into rock and its transition revealed a trail.

Sokka realized he found that part of the world seen only by ancestors like Hakoda and Kuruk.

A rumble echoed out of the canyon.

Sokka grasped the boomerang, wizened like the man, and wondered what could be alive within that realm....

* * *

It seemed like that stop at the village came from the memory of another's life. There were choices and transformations from one existence to the next. And they were one-way adventures. He knew as he took that step out of the tribe, into the wilderness that there could be no return.

It was pointless to deny the inevitable. He was dying and vowed not to be found. He wanted to pass like a warrior, silent and alone.... There would be no body to mourn.

So he turned toward the mountains.

Onyx skies sparkled with unnumbered stars while clouds slithered across the vista and filled the air with a deep, guttural roar.

He did not stop to look behind - the settlement was already afar and the image of the girl gazing aloft would have been obscured. 

* * *

The reality that the end was near added its own dimension of intensity to the struggle. The beast was a creature of flesh and blood as its innards attested. The fight was ugly doubtless as survival itself. He fancied it must have been that way since the dawn of the hunter. At length the fight cost him the use of an arm yet it was the animal that gasped its last breath within its den full of bones.

Sokka lurched, dripping blood that left a trail black against white across the snow.

A final climb awaited.

He he recalled: "I will see you again!"

Korra glarred at the chief.

He saw the steely, cool determination within that girl's eyes and knew if anyone were to upend the roles of sex it would be she. 

He wrapped his arms about the girl and whispered a word.

Did she know of her destiny even at that age?

* * *

Sokka staggered beyond the ridge. Following that path, he descended from the crest to the basin. The valley was thin and narrow and encased with snow. All about its field he was greeted with the remnants of the ages. Weapons. Armors. All of which gradually became more and more familiar.

Weakening. Stumbling. He searched in vain for his father. Surely, he hoped, he must have outsmarted that creature....

At length, ebbed and drained, he stopped.

With a roar the day broke through the night. Light swept the crypt. And he joined with history.


End file.
